Chapter 380: A Visitor from the Past
Chapter 380: A Visitor from the Past
"No, that's not what I wanted to say."
"Also, this potion will definitely prevent me from obtaining the Horcrux. It will likely paralyze me, make me forget why I came here, cause me extreme pain, and render me unable to focus my mind, or otherwise incapacitate me. If that happens, Sherlock, you need to ensure I keep drinking it, even if you have to force it down my closed mouth, do you understand?"
"I was going to say!"
Sherlock had to raise his voice to draw Dumbledore's attention back to himself.
"This place still feels off. I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong, but I might have a way to detect it."
As he spoke, his right hand fumbled in his pocket and soon pulled out a bottle of golden "dust" in front of Dumbledore.
Seeing Sherlock produce the bottle, Dumbledore's face showed clear surprise.
"This is... How did you find this?"
At the last award ceremony, although Sherlock had mentioned that Mrs. Matthew had cured Silke's eyes, he hadn't mentioned the extracted Time Dust, so Dumbledore was unaware of it.
"This is the substance that contaminated Vera's eyes. Mrs. Matthew extracted it and gave it to me. It's called..."
"Time Dust, a crucial material used to create Time-Turners."
Before Sherlock could finish, Dumbledore had already identified the item.
"Yes, Mrs. Matthew said it's an improved version of Time Dust, developed by her ancestors. If this substance adheres to an object, it can show the object's history from the moment it was created to the present."
"We can use this. This stone altar was definitely built by Voldemort when he hid something. If we can see its history, we can determine whether the liquid below contains a Horcrux. Once we know that, we can decide who should drink the potion."
Dumbledore looked at Sherlock with evident approval, his happiness unhidden.
"There's no more reliable choice. Let's see the history of this stone altar first."
Without hesitation, Sherlock uncorked the bottle and aimed it at the stone altar, gently tapping the glass bottle. The golden specks drifted out and settled on the stone.
After the Time Dust had reduced by about a third, Sherlock recorked the bottle.
As soon as the golden "dust" landed on the stone altar, a white, somewhat transparent figure appeared beside Sherlock and Dumbledore.
It was clearly Voldemort from the past.
The ghostly Voldemort created the stone altar in front of them, poured the potion into the stone basin, and then vanished from the cave.
The historical scene played quickly, like a fast-forwarded video. Soon, Voldemort returned.
But this time, he wasn't alone. A pitifully thin house-elf accompanied him!
"Kreacher."
Dumbledore, looking at the small, fearful figure, softly spoke the house-elf's name.
Voldemort and Kreacher arrived at the lake's center in the ghostly boat. Voldemort seemed to give Kreacher some instructions, and the trembling house-elf approached the stone altar, drinking the toxic potion in the stone basin with great fear.
After just a few sips, Kreacher began to struggle and sob. He seemed to be pleading with Voldemort, but the Dark Lord, who considered himself infinitely noble, would not listen to the requests of a house-elf.
Voldemort forced Kreacher to drink all the potion in the stone basin. Afterward, seeing Kreacher's pitiful state, Voldemort laughed heartily.
Then, he took out a Pendant Box from his robes and placed it in the now empty stone basin. Finally, he refilled the basin with a new potion.
The white shadow representing Voldemort took the small boat and left the island in the lake, leaving the agonized Kreacher behind.
Kreacher, seemingly desperate for water, struggled to crawl to the lake's edge, trying to drink from it.
But then, something seemed to happen to him, and he vanished in the next second.
The area around the stone altar returned to its previous calm, with no other white shadows appearing.
Dumbledore and Sherlock remained silent for about ten seconds after witnessing this scene.
"He used Kreacher as a test subject for the poison", Dumbledore said with a grave expression. "The Black family, except for Sirius Black, are almost all staunch believers in pure-blood ideology, which is why most of them have sided with Voldemort."
"He must have borrowed Kreacher from the Black family to test his poison."
Sherlock, however, furrowed his brow.
"But why didn't Kreacher die? He's still alive to this day. I'm not surprised that he managed to leave here; Voldemort's arrogance might have led him to overlook the fact that the Anti-Apparition magic doesn't affect house-elves. However, without any command and given Kreacher's rigid personality, how could he have escaped?"
As Sherlock asked this, Dumbledore stepped forward.
"We can ask Kreacher about these matters when we return. For now, let's focus on retrieving the Pendant Box. Voldemort placed it under the poison right in front of us, and you noticed Kreacher's state while drinking the liquid. So, when I resist, he will force me to drink the potion."
Before he finished speaking, two more white, ethereal figures suddenly appeared.
Dumbledore and Sherlock were taken aback, realizing that the history of the stone altar had not yet concluded.
These two figures also arrived at the center of the lake in the small boat.
One of them was the house-elf Kreacher, who had previously escaped, and the other was unfamiliar to Sherlock.
It was a lean, not particularly tall male wizard who somewhat resembled Sirius Black but was not as handsome.
Dumbledore's gaze became profound as he looked at the male wizard's figure. Having served as Headmaster of Hogwarts for nearly four decades, he remembered almost every student who had left an impression on him.
So, he softly spoke the name of the male wizard.
"This is... Regulus Black."
(End of Chapter)
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